After watching Magic Johnson abruptly quit the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s clear the Philadelphia 76ers picked the right player-turned-GM in Elton Brand.
When LeBron James made his now-infamous decision to sign a contract with the Los Angeles Lakers over the Philadelphia 76ers in July of 2018, the two organizations were in very different spots
While both had technically spent the previous half-decade firmly entrenched in the lottery, accruing talent at an alarming rate from all corners of the basketball world, the 76ers were clearly building towards the better organization, as they had two bona fide star players on their roster and had actually over-performed the previous season; to the tune of a 50 win campaign, as well as a spot in Eastern Conference semifinals.
But there’s a catch; the team had just been forced to move on from their GM, Bryan Colangelo, after the event now goofily remembered as ‘Collar Gate’. With Brett Brown elevated to the team’s interim general manager, the team had a not so splashy NBA draft, and seemed rather less at times, making the prospects of adding a player like James pretty far-fetched.
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As for the Lakers, well, they’re the Lakers.
With Magic Johnson heading basketball operations, Kobe Bryant‘s former agent (Rob Pelinka) as the team’s GM, and their own collection of former lottery selections, adding James to this motley crew of potential pieces seemed like an interesting proposition to shake up the West and start the next, next-era in Lakers basketball.
Boy, what a difference a year can make.
After careful searching, the Sixers’ brass signed their own former player turned general manager Elton Brand, who’d spent years preparing for the role as the general manager for the team now known as the Delaware Blue Coats and in his abbreviated time heading the club he was able to do what Johnson couldn’t; secure not one but two star players this year without completely depleting the team’s war chest of assets.
Johnson, on the other hand, just up and quit on his “sister” Jeanie Buss, and is leaving the team without a head of basketball operations in the lead-up to what will likely go down as the most crucial offseason in Lakers basketball this decade.
Much like the Sixers last season, it seems like a long shot that any of this summer’s marquee free agents would be willing to gamble a sizable chunk of their prime years to an organization that in all likelihood won’t have a general manager and is on shaky footing moving forward.
And if that were to happen as the Lakers enter the 2019 season without a true partner for James, it will go down as one of the biggest missed opportunities in recent basketball memory.
Featuring a coaching staff that assumed they’d be fired after the final game of the season, a newly empowered general manager who is hated across the league, and an owner who wants to run the biggest organization in basketball like a family business, the Lakers are in terrible shape going into this offseason, starkly contrasting Philly’s prospects.
Sure, the Sixers will also have to make some tough decisions, like bringing back Jimmy Butler and/or Tobias Harris, but if Elton Brand’s willingness to get creative, wheel and deal over his first nine months on the job is any indication, this is a team that’s not going to rest on their laurels and will do everything they can to turn in a better product next fall.
Maybe LeBron James should have taken that meeting with the Philadelphia 76ers after all. With Magic Johnson now out of the fray, can the Los Angeles Lakers say the same?